Setting the record straight

Sitting Bull descendent views grandfather's pictographs.

Sitting Bull descendent views grandfather's pictographs.

October 03, 2006|LOU MUMFORD Tribune Staff Writer

NILES -- The name Ernie LaPointe probably doesn't ring any bells. But many no doubt have heard of LaPointe's great-grandfather, Sitting Bull. The Hunkpapa Lakota warrior and holy man is said to have killed his first buffalo at age 10, but he's best known for his presence at the Little Big Horn, where George Armstrong Custer rode to his doom. On Monday, LaPointe, 58, of Lead, S.D., was at the Fort St. Joseph Museum in Niles, looking over 12 pictographs drawn by his famous relative more than a century ago. The pictographs show Sitting Bull on horseback, slaying enemy warriors. LaPointe said the victims in the drawings are Crow Indians, a long-time enemy of Sitting Bull's Lakota tribe. "It was a natural thing, like a cat and a dog,'' LaPointe said of the mutual contempt. The drawings have been on display since the 1930s, when they were willed to the museum by the late Alice Quimby. Quimby had been with her mother, Martha Quimby, in the early 1880s, when Martha Quimby's husband, Capt. Horace Quimby, served as quartermaster at Fort Randall in what's now South Dakota. Also at Fort Randall at the time was Sitting Bull, a "guest'' of the U.S. government. It seems Martha Quimby struck up a friendship with him, and he presented her with the drawings as a gift. LaPointe said he was made aware of the drawings, technically called pictographs, through a conversation his wife, Sonja, had with the wife of a Custer re-enactor. He traveled to Niles to see them, he said, after attending a Custer Week celebration in Monroe, Mich., on Saturday. He said he had known the drawings existed but it wasn't until recently that he found out they were in Niles. "I said, 'no kidding?' '' he recalled. Although fascinated by the drawings, LaPointe spent the bulk of his Niles visit with reporters attempting to set the record straight on Sitting Bull. He said much of the misinformation in history books was generated by One Bull, a nephew of Sitting Bull who betrayed his uncle and turned him over to a detail of Indian police in 1890 on the Standing Rock Reservation near the North and South Dakota border. One of the officers shot the 59-year-old Sitting Bull, killing him. LaPointe said an Indian agent at nearby Fort Yates orchestrated Sitting Bull's death because he resented the famous chief's influence over other area Indian leaders. LaPointe said Sitting Bull not only disliked war, but he didn't hate white men. "He was a humble individual who cared for his people, the land. ... He just wanted to be left alone,'' he said. LaPointe said even at Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull had hoped "to council'' with Custer before the ill-fated 1876 battle in which Custer and his 7th Cavalry were wiped out. "But they came too quick,'' LaPointe said. "Custer split his forces and attacked.'' When the battle was over, Sitting Bull prayed not only for the Indian warriors that perished but also for Custer and his roughly 200 fallen soldiers, LaPointe said. He said Sitting Bull prayed, too, for the horses that were killed. "They were essential to the tribe. They depended on them for their mobility,'' he said. LaPointe said Sitting Bull was a spiritual leader, a medicine man and a chief but he wanted to be known mostly as a sun dancer. Sun dancers, he said, pierce themselves with skewers before performing ceremonial dances seeking fertility, good health and longevity for tribal members. LaPointe said he, too, has performed as a Sun Dancer, pointing out the pain he suffered is nothing compared to what his ancestors endured. Staff writer Lou Mumford: lmumford@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7002